Thank You For Stickin’ With Twig is not just an album name for Slim Twig. It is also an honest bit of gratitude for those who have stuck with him through a wandering musical career across the last few years. In five albums he’s moved from “sample-stained” to symphonic to movie soundtrack and now “sonically immersive.” It’s hard not to think of Frank Zappa.

The album — released in August on DFA Records and available for free stream on YouTube (embedded below) with a Veuve Cliquot-sipping, bowling jacket-wearing Twig as your guide — is heavy on synthetic sounds, with warped, effected vocals on most tracks. Some tracks sound like they were pressed to vinyl, left on the dashboard to melt, and then replayed and recorded for the final version. There are live instruments in there too, often disguised beyond recognition.

Influences that struck me in listening: The Beatles‘ Stg Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 70’s lounge, outer space. And then a track like “Fog of Sex, N.S.I.S.” comes along with a multi-flute intro and sounding like The Black Keys, while exploring what I think is the more fluid nature of sexuality for the 21st century Millennial. The album might not have Zappa’s genius guitar playing, but it certainly has his keep-you-guessing composition style.

Slim Twig, a mere 26 years old, will be rolling out this multitude of strange sounds on Sunday September 27th at the Hemlock with a full band. Tickets here. I’ll be there mostly because I’m curious how so much sound will be replicated live, but also because there’s something undeniably different about the whole thing. And different is attractive.